We need a Museum of Communism – or else we risk repeating its terrors

Follow the author of this article

Follow the topics within this article

The Holodomor killed millions of people, but we do not remember itCredit:
Theodor Innitzer/Alexander Wienerberger

In the first phase of starvation, the body consumes its reserves of glucose. In the second, it uses up its fat. The whole body becomes weak. This can last a few weeks. In the third phase, the body devours its own proteins, eating up its own tissues and muscles. Eventually, the skin becomes thin, shiny – even transparent. It can easily break. Nadia Malyshko, in the province of Dniepropetrovsk, remembered that her mother, who was only 37, “swelled up, became weak and looked old”. Her legs were shining and the skin burst.